New Delhi (Mizzima) – The French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, Rama Yade, is preparing to begin a three-day visit to Thailand on Thursday and will discuss issues including the situation in Burma.

Yade, who will be in Thailand from March 12 to 14, will meet Thailand’s Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and will discuss  “economic, political and cultural as well as regional issues, particularly the situation in Burma,” a statement of the Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Yade will also visit the Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp in Northern Thailand, where about 20,000 Burmese refugees are housed, and will seek cooperation between the Thai government and major aid donors to continue aiding the refugees.

Besides discussing humanitarian issues with Thai officials, Yade will also visit a centre in Bangkok, which shelters children and women who are victims of forced labour, sexual exploitation and forcible begging.

She will also go to Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand, to visit a hospital specializing in the treatment of AIDS, where the French Institute for Research and Development heads a project to fight virus transmission from mother to child.

Rama Yade is also scheduled to meet Thailand’s human rights defenders.